


Names

by agent85



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Why Fitz goes by Fitz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-20
Updated: 2015-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-08 06:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3199283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent85/pseuds/agent85
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.”</p><p>―W.C. Fields</p>
            </blockquote>





	Names

One day, when she had asked, he had looked her in the eye and decided that out of all the people at the Academy, she was the one who wouldn't laugh at him. 

"Leopold is for strangers; Fitz is for colleagues and friends," he explained, hoping he sounded more composed than he felt.

"So," Simmons responded, pursing her lips, "do you impose these restrictions on people? Because I don't recall having that conversation when we met."

Fitz shook his head. "Usually, they figure it out for themselves. They call me Leopold, I tell them that my friends call me Fitz, and they work it out from there."

"Ah," she said, looking thoughtful, "then does anybody get to call you Leo?"

"My mum," he answered.

"Only your mum?"

Fitz had to think about that for a second. "My gran called me Leo, but she's passed on." He tried to imagine the name rolling off of anyone else's tongue, and he shrugged.

She stared at him for a second, as if solving a puzzle.

"So, it's a way to organize your relationships. I suppose that's clever. You find a way for people to self-label their association with you. Leopold is for people with no relationship, Fitz is for people who like you, and Leo is for people who love you." 

Fitz had never thought of it like that. The more he considered it, though, the more he realized that it was true. When it came to relationships of any kind, Fitz preferred to let other people steer; it worked better that way. That's one of the reasons that he got along so well with Simmons in the first place.

And when Simmons became his best friend, it made sense to him that his name sounded better coming from her lips than it did from anyone else's.

But one day, when she tried to save them all from herself, she wasn't Simmons to him. She was Jemma. 

Of course, she didn't put up walls, like he did. She didn't need to distance and quantify people, like he did. So when he found himself screaming her given name through a glass door, he saw her smile at him, and he knew that if she understood, she wouldn't have let the wind take her away.

It wasn't until later, long after they fell to the bottom of the sea together, after he was dropped on death's doorstep and managed to crawl his way back to her, and after a certain silence had grown between them, that it happened.

When he told her that his work was done, and that he would see her in the morning, she stopped him with a hand put over his.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his confusion compounding as she seemed to struggle to find the words.

"Leo, I . . ."

His heart stopped.

"Leo?" As the question came from his lips, he looked at their hands, then into her eyes. She would remember, he knew. She wouldn't toy with him.

She dipped her head, but gave him a small smile.

"Leo," she said.

And without another word, she wrapped her arms around him, and he enveloped her, intent on never letting her go.


End file.
